Asgard
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
Asgard is the foremost reach of Ysgard, the layer where the plane’s loud ideals take on stone, sky, and song. Here the great earthbergs are largest and most welcoming; the mead is hot, the wind is bright, and reputation is law. If Ysgard is the skald’s heaven, Asgard is its front hall, the place you arrive first, are weighed by your word, and are handed your next chance at glory.Asgard is the beating heart of the Ysgard, a vast and tumultuous realm where valor, revelry, and struggle never cease. This first layer embodies the plane’s paradoxical nature, an afterlife of endless battle and ceaseless feasting, where heroes and gods stride alike across shifting earthbergs that glow with molten fire from below.
Geography
Asgard is a sky of aurora-laced aether threaded with colossal earthbergs—continent-islands bearing fjords, black-pine marches, thunder-peaks, and glittering star-forges. Seas of molten rock glow far below; waterfalls leap from berg to berg and sometimes freeze into crystal bridges when a boast is kept.Like the other layers of Ysgard, Asgard is formed from colossal earthbergs, continent-sized landmasses drifting in great cosmic rivers across the void. These stone-isles grind, clash, and crack against each other with a slow, thunderous inevitability. The undersides of the landmasses burn with radiant fire, casting a ruddy glow that warms the seas and illuminates the skies below. The land itself is mountainous and rugged, punctuated by cold seas, storm-lashed fjords, and sprawling meadows where warriors gather for contests of strength. At night, the fiery undersides of drifting earthbergs light the heavens, resembling rivers of molten lava arching across the sky. Asgard is the most populous of Ysgard’s layers, home to vast halls, battlefields, and divine realms that stand as the stage for its unending sagas.
Notable Locations
Shield-Mounts
Knife-backed ranges; every cairn records a victory or an apology.Fjord-Falls
Runnels that become singing bridges at twilight—safe to cross if you’ve kept your word that day.Skaldfields
Wind-swept meadows where grass plaits into firm footing when opposing lines shout their names.Star-Forges
Meteor craters where iron tempers to rhythm; a steady hammer-song grants enhancement to crafting.Himin-Hall, the Ever-Roaring
A cliff-long hall under an upturned longship roof; every firepit is a different warband’s after-feast. Tales told to full benches grant Boons of the Bench.Cliff of Oaths
A sheer face engraved with vows; climbers who fall land in the next promise they swore to keep.Access and Exit
Aurora Bridges
Perform a fitting boast or Intimidation, when Success carries the creature along the ribbon of light; failure drops the creature at a safe ledge, and brands you with a minor geas to try again.World-Ash Roots
Ancient paths through the core of the bergs link to the Outlands and, rarely, to Warrior's Rest.Guest-Right Tokens
Sharing bread, salt, and a story grants a token; it can substitute for a planar key once.Inhabitants
Just as described in Ysgard, the inhabitants are pretty much the same, xcept for the fallen warriors of the mortal world, who awaken here to fght, feast and die again, reborn each dawn to resume their endless cycles of valor, except that there are also many Giants.Customs
- Guest-Right
Break it and no door opens for you on Asgard again until a hall-keeper pardons you. - Name-Debt
If someone speaks your name in true need at a fire where you once ate, you feel it; refusing penalizes your next day’s capabilities to attack and your defenseuntil you answer another name. - The Right of Boast
Any may challenge an unproven boast. First blood decides truth; death need not.
Localized Phenomena
Asgard amplifies the metaphysical elements: Faith becomes oath-song that writes short-lived laws; Soul harmonizes into ki more readily; Aether answers music with visible color; Time falls into heroic beats as in: strive—feast—try again.
Aurora Bridges
Ribbons of light that open when travelers perform a fitting boast or lament; each leads to a named realm.Saga Echoes
Dusk reenactments of famous duels; join one and gain a fitting temporary feat until next dawn.Boast-Doors
Standing stones that open as gates if you publicly vow a deed you will attempt within three dawns.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Objective directional on earthbergs; subjective in the star-lit aether between them. |
| Time | 5 times slower than Prime Material Plane, but battles and feasts recur in cycles tied to the dawn. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite. |
| Morphic Traits | Highly morphic to sworn oaths and songs skaldic magic, bardic performance, and oath-bound. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant |
| Alignment | Strongly Chaotic, mildly Good. |
| Magic | Spells which are chaotic are empowered; lawful and spells that deny agency (e.g. Dominate) effects are impeded. Spells of resurrection or reincarnation automatically succeed if used on slain petitioners within Ysgard itself. In addition, Skaldic, Bardic magic and oath-bound effects are enhanced. |
Alternative Name(s)
Gladsheim
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
Comments